Dealing with a crisis(?) of confidence

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MattCW

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MattCW
I need to vent and decompress a little with my fellow pilots (since I don't really have any in real life currently). I'm just a hobby private pilot (~97hrs TT), I may get my CFI one day and do some commercial oddjobs more for fun than for trying to make any kind of living, but I'm just flying for fun and to go places when conditions allow. But I find myself stressed during and after most flights. I admit, I've only done four flights as PIC post-checkride. But I always find myself stressed about things. I did a flight today, nothing special, a cross country to two different airports and back; topologically a loop, geographically a narrow triangle. I haven't flown in about 7 weeks due to weather and maintenance not being good when my schedule is open. If today hadn't been severe clear, then another week and I'd have been scheduling a "de-rust" flight with my CFI.

Taxi and takeoff was fine. I had about 5 seconds of rustiness pulling out of the parking spot, but everything through runup came back to me. Cruise was fine, descent was fine, radio calls were all fine. Finding and entering the pattern at the first airport was ok. I could have done better with altitude, but it was acceptable to me. I cross midfield and turn into the downwind. Now I can't hold my speed and altitude worth anything. I'm too low, gun the throttle, now I'm too fast, pull back, BUT NOT THAT MUCH! At a mile from the threshold, I finally stabilize, I'm a tad high, but some finessing of the throttle brings me down nicely and I land. Not a terriffic landing, but not horrible (and don't worry, I was about three seconds from going around, I wasn't going to push the landing any further if I couldn't get stable). I pull off the runway and taxi back to the end to take off again. I pull into the runup area and setup for my next leg, and breathe a minute. I had planned to do some pattern work and practice some different landings, but with how I felt after that approach, I decided to stick with normal landings and just get back to cruise. Maybe I should have shut down there and walked inside the terminal, but I didn't.

I takeoff fine and head to airport 2, a short 20 minute hop. Along the way, I'm dodging traffic. I'm in a rural area, and it seems like everyone and their mother is flying today and I'm getting more stressed at having to dodge other planes (nothing dangerous, but I wanted very much to keep it that way). I get into the pattern at airport 2 and make another landing. Slightly better, but still not one I'm proud of. I pull up in front of the terminal and just stop and go inside. I wasn't sure where to park and it's unattended so I'm just there in front of everything. Fortunately everyone and their mother that's flying, isn't flying at this airport. I spend about 30 minutes in the terminal, get some water, text some friends, walk around. But in my head, I'm definitely wondering if I should even be a pilot, that maybe this isn't for me. I hear another plane on the radio coming in so I get the towbar out and push my plane into a free spot since I'm not ready to go yet.

Finally I decide it's time to go. The other plane has been doing some landings. The runways are 11 and 29. Winds have been variable, but largely favoring 11. While I was taking my breather, I literally watched the windsock swing through about 130 degrees of travel. I see the other plane down at 29 just sitting, doing a runup? Post-landing debrief? Who knows, they're silent on the radio currently. I announce I'm taking runway 29 taxiing to the runup loop area for runway 11. Windsock still favors 11 as I pass it. I enter the loop and call clear of the runway. The other plane asks if I'll be a minute, I say I will. They takeoff runway 29 departing to the west. I can still see the windsock. But am I reading it right? I run the physics through my head a few different ways "tail points toward runway to use" "the small end will get pushed around by the wind" "AWOS says winds 170" etc. Winds are light so it's not a big deal, but I'm absolutely questioning myself at this point. At one other airport, I completely got the runways backward, called the correct one, landed the opposite one though and absolutely facepalmed when I realized it. Fortunately it was as quiet as today's airport and no one was around to even care.

I take off and do a downwind departure, also to the west. I climb up to my altitude and get on with flight following. This is when things change for the better. I am on top of it with Center, Approach, and Tower. I'm talking to the same folks as the big boys carying 300 passengers and I sound cool too. Then I absolutely butter my landing back home. That all definitely helped a lot. Until I tie down. Now the doubt sets in again. I push the plane back, tie it down, replace the chock, replace the cowl plug, get all of my stuff out, write down the times, go inside, put away the POH and key, and leave. But ever since then, and after my previous flights, I'm always wondering, did I break something? Will the school call me two days from now and tell me that something on the plane is broken and it's my fault? Or is something missing? Did I actually put the cowl plug back in? After my previous flight in this plane (it's a retract), on final, I remember looking at the three green lights, but I don't remember vocalizing "three green" like I'm supposed to do on every leg after I put the gear down. I did that each time on this flight though...or did I? Obviously I didn't do a wheels-up landing either time, but not explicitly calling something so critical still haunts me a little.

Is any of this normal? Will these doubts go away and my confidence go up? I jokingly say to my friends "who's the idiot that had the stupid idea to let me fly a plane!?" but sometimes I feel like it's not entirely a joke. Yes, I'm one of those people who's very hard on themselves, and I have at times taken it to unhealthy levels. My attitude toward aviation is that it's not a place for mistakes. The results can be far more catastrophic than mistakes in literally any other part of my life (I'm not a professional nuclear warhead juggler), so I'm going to be holding myself to a high standard, and trying to learn from times I fall short. But does any of this sound normal, or should I really try to re-evaluate how I approach some of this? If you made it this far, thank you for sticking around, I'm very intersted in any honest feedback.
 
My $0.02, take it for what it’s worth.

You my friend, are human. We all doubt ourselves to the point of exhaustion. 99% of the pilots on the sky with you at that time had all those exact same thoughts at one point in time as a pilot. The smart ones understood it, and sought to be better. The stupid ones thought they were better than they are… sometimes time will tell, other times time lets them believe their fallacy.
You did fine by understanding your deficits and wanting to improve on such.
TLDR…you’ll be fine.

By you simply understanding that you can improve, is the crux of any pilot. When you think there is nothing left to learn, hang up your spurs…you’re done.
 
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I think it sounds normal. The less hours you have and the older you are, I think the faster rust builds and then prior confidence wanes. You’re being safe and overly cautious. Just don’t let your confidence affect your ability to be PIC and make the plane do what you want. Fly more often. But you probably already know that. It gets better, but you know yourself better than us strangers, do what ya gotta do.

Even after I got my private certificate I would write a few debrief bullets in a notebook of things I screwed up. Fix your mistakes. Confidence will then build.
 
I think (like myself) you suffer from a little bit of paralysis by analysis. Take some flights with an instructor to calm the nerves and give you the reassurance you need and fly more.

As far as airspeed on approach, use that trim wheel. Relax that death grip and your expectations of perfection. Take some laps in the pattern. We all bounce a landing or go around from time to time. Hell, I did it yesterday.
 
MattCW said:
I need to vent and decompress a little with my fellow pilots (since I don't really have any in real life currently). I'm just a hobby private pilot (~97hrs TT), I may get my CFI one day and do some commercial oddjobs more for fun than for trying to make any kind of living, but I'm just flying for fun and to go places when conditions allow. But I find myself stressed during and after most flights. I admit, I've only done four flights as PIC post-checkride. But I always find myself stressed about things. I did a flight today, nothing special, a cross country to two different airports and back; topologically a loop, geographically a narrow triangle. I haven't flown in about 7 weeks due to weather and maintenance not being good when my schedule is open. If today hadn't been severe clear, then another week and I'd have been scheduling a "de-rust" flight with my CFI.

Taxi and takeoff was fine. I had about 5 seconds of rustiness pulling out of the parking spot, but everything through runup came back to me. Cruise was fine, descent was fine, radio calls were all fine. Finding and entering the pattern at the first airport was ok. I could have done better with altitude, but it was acceptable to me. I cross midfield and turn into the downwind. Now I can't hold my speed and altitude worth anything. I'm too low, gun the throttle, now I'm too fast, pull back, BUT NOT THAT MUCH! At a mile from the threshold, I finally stabilize, I'm a tad high, but some finessing of the throttle brings me down nicely and I land. Not a terriffic landing, but not horrible (and don't worry, I was about three seconds from going around, I wasn't going to push the landing any further if I couldn't get stable). I pull off the runway and taxi back to the end to take off again. I pull into the runup area and setup for my next leg, and breathe a minute. I had planned to do some pattern work and practice some different landings, but with how I felt after that approach, I decided to stick with normal landings and just get back to cruise. Maybe I should have shut down there and walked inside the terminal, but I didn't.

I takeoff fine and head to airport 2, a short 20 minute hop. Along the way, I'm dodging traffic. I'm in a rural area, and it seems like everyone and their mother is flying today and I'm getting more stressed at having to dodge other planes (nothing dangerous, but I wanted very much to keep it that way). I get into the pattern at airport 2 and make another landing. Slightly better, but still not one I'm proud of. I pull up in front of the terminal and just stop and go inside. I wasn't sure where to park and it's unattended so I'm just there in front of everything. Fortunately everyone and their mother that's flying, isn't flying at this airport. I spend about 30 minutes in the terminal, get some water, text some friends, walk around. But in my head, I'm definitely wondering if I should even be a pilot, that maybe this isn't for me. I hear another plane on the radio coming in so I get the towbar out and push my plane into a free spot since I'm not ready to go yet.

Finally I decide it's time to go. The other plane has been doing some landings. The runways are 11 and 29. Winds have been variable, but largely favoring 11. While I was taking my breather, I literally watched the windsock swing through about 130 degrees of travel. I see the other plane down at 29 just sitting, doing a runup? Post-landing debrief? Who knows, they're silent on the radio currently. I announce I'm taking runway 29 taxiing to the runup loop area for runway 11. Windsock still favors 11 as I pass it. I enter the loop and call clear of the runway. The other plane asks if I'll be a minute, I say I will. They takeoff runway 29 departing to the west. I can still see the windsock. But am I reading it right? I run the physics through my head a few different ways "tail points toward runway to use" "the small end will get pushed around by the wind" "AWOS says winds 170" etc. Winds are light so it's not a big deal, but I'm absolutely questioning myself at this point. At one other airport, I completely got the runways backward, called the correct one, landed the opposite one though and absolutely facepalmed when I realized it. Fortunately it was as quiet as today's airport and no one was around to even care.

I take off and do a downwind departure, also to the west. I climb up to my altitude and get on with flight following. This is when things change for the better. I am on top of it with Center, Approach, and Tower. I'm talking to the same folks as the big boys carying 300 passengers and I sound cool too. Then I absolutely butter my landing back home. That all definitely helped a lot. Until I tie down. Now the doubt sets in again. I push the plane back, tie it down, replace the chock, replace the cowl plug, get all of my stuff out, write down the times, go inside, put away the POH and key, and leave. But ever since then, and after my previous flights, I'm always wondering, did I break something? Will the school call me two days from now and tell me that something on the plane is broken and it's my fault? Or is something missing? Did I actually put the cowl plug back in? After my previous flight in this plane (it's a retract), on final, I remember looking at the three green lights, but I don't remember vocalizing "three green" like I'm supposed to do on every leg after I put the gear down. I did that each time on this flight though...or did I? Obviously I didn't do a wheels-up landing either time, but not explicitly calling something so critical still haunts me a little.

Is any of this normal? Will these doubts go away and my confidence go up? I jokingly say to my friends "who's the idiot that had the stupid idea to let me fly a plane!?" but sometimes I feel like it's not entirely a joke. Yes, I'm one of those people who's very hard on themselves, and I have at times taken it to unhealthy levels. My attitude toward aviation is that it's not a place for mistakes. The results can be far more catastrophic than mistakes in literally any other part of my life (I'm not a professional nuclear warhead juggler), so I'm going to be holding myself to a high standard, and trying to learn from times I fall short. But does any of this sound normal, or should I really try to re-evaluate how I approach some of this? If you made it this far, thank you for sticking around, I'm very intersted in any honest feedback.
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You don't fly much and it sounds like you don't have a lot of solo time either (only 4 PIC flights post-check ride?), so I'd say this is normal and to-be-expected.
My first 10 trips after the checkride were a little nerve racking (esp b/c in a new plane for me). It took a while before I felt like I had the hang of it.

And frankly (and I mean this in a supportive sense): a healthy dose of nervousness and lack of confidence can be a good thing if you don't fly often. It's self preservation in action. That extra bit of self-reflection/introspection and critiquing yourself about your situation is what gets you to want to improve. I think it's a good thing, really. Because once you get past that it's too easy to become comfortable and complacent :). Just my $0.02.
 
What you are experiencing is what many of us experience. I just past 1000 hrs and still question myself. Every flight for me is a learning experience. Have I had a perfect flight? I do not think so. That being said I do think there is the danger of over thinking things which can lead to paralysis. Remember a number of people felt you are a competent and safe pilot. You will make mistakes. Learn from them. Things will get better, but over confidence and complacency is more dangerous than under confidence and double checking.
 
It’s normal like others say.

It’s not normal if you start think everything is peachy. That’s when you might become dangerous.

I was just finished doing my night solo for the rating, and my CFI told me to keep questioning what’s happening on approach. He on purpose put me on the short runway with a cross and tailwinds. That was an interesting workout after weeks away. In the end though the point is to question is everything ok, and if not what do I do about it now.

Another thing to keep in mind is take your time. It sounds like maybe while you are flying you feel behind the aircraft. Slow down the speed a bit so you have more time to think and do stuff.
 
MattCW said:
…Is any of this normal? ….
Click to expand...
Yes, especially for a new pilot with a long break since your last flight. Lots of time spent not exercising muscle memory results in skill atrophy which, as you learned, impacts confidence.

As a new pilot, it really takes about 1-2hrs/week to reinforce and ‘set’ the skills. That’s not necessarily straight & level hours, either. The ground reference maneuvers and slow flight are only used fleetingly, but have an outsize impact on any given flight. Maintaining mastery of those skills takes effort.

There’s a reason the FAA sets experience requirements for advanced ratings and certificates…it usually takes some time of you learning on your own the lesson you just identified….controlling the plane is a perishable skill.

Go up more often.
 
Your post flight analysis and concerns are a sign of a good pilot in the making. Serioulsy. It shows you are understanding that this is a serious pastime and deserves you continuing quest for improvement and learning.

The people that scare me are those who, after their 4th solo flight, post a video on the internet flying with a their friends and acting like flying is not much different than driving.

As experience increases, so will your confidence.

If you become a good pilot, some of that anxiety will never go away. You will just learn to deal with it by fully preparing for every flight.
 
Normal at 100 hours, it will pass.
 
MattCW said:
I need to vent and decompress a little with my fellow pilots (since I don't really have any in real life currently). I'm just a hobby private pilot (~97hrs TT), I may get my CFI one day and do some commercial oddjobs more for fun than for trying to make any kind of living, but I'm just flying for fun and to go places when conditions allow. But I find myself stressed during and after most flights. I admit, I've only done four flights as PIC post-checkride. But I always find myself stressed about things. I did a flight today, nothing special, a cross country to two different airports and back; topologically a loop, geographically a narrow triangle. I haven't flown in about 7 weeks due to weather and maintenance not being good when my schedule is open. If today hadn't been severe clear, then another week and I'd have been scheduling a "de-rust" flight with my CFI.

Taxi and takeoff was fine. I had about 5 seconds of rustiness pulling out of the parking spot, but everything through runup came back to me. Cruise was fine, descent was fine, radio calls were all fine. Finding and entering the pattern at the first airport was ok. I could have done better with altitude, but it was acceptable to me. I cross midfield and turn into the downwind. Now I can't hold my speed and altitude worth anything. I'm too low, gun the throttle, now I'm too fast, pull back, BUT NOT THAT MUCH! At a mile from the threshold, I finally stabilize, I'm a tad high, but some finessing of the throttle brings me down nicely and I land. Not a terriffic landing, but not horrible (and don't worry, I was about three seconds from going around, I wasn't going to push the landing any further if I couldn't get stable). I pull off the runway and taxi back to the end to take off again. I pull into the runup area and setup for my next leg, and breathe a minute. I had planned to do some pattern work and practice some different landings, but with how I felt after that approach, I decided to stick with normal landings and just get back to cruise. Maybe I should have shut down there and walked inside the terminal, but I didn't.

I takeoff fine and head to airport 2, a short 20 minute hop. Along the way, I'm dodging traffic. I'm in a rural area, and it seems like everyone and their mother is flying today and I'm getting more stressed at having to dodge other planes (nothing dangerous, but I wanted very much to keep it that way). I get into the pattern at airport 2 and make another landing. Slightly better, but still not one I'm proud of. I pull up in front of the terminal and just stop and go inside. I wasn't sure where to park and it's unattended so I'm just there in front of everything. Fortunately everyone and their mother that's flying, isn't flying at this airport. I spend about 30 minutes in the terminal, get some water, text some friends, walk around. But in my head, I'm definitely wondering if I should even be a pilot, that maybe this isn't for me. I hear another plane on the radio coming in so I get the towbar out and push my plane into a free spot since I'm not ready to go yet.

Finally I decide it's time to go. The other plane has been doing some landings. The runways are 11 and 29. Winds have been variable, but largely favoring 11. While I was taking my breather, I literally watched the windsock swing through about 130 degrees of travel. I see the other plane down at 29 just sitting, doing a runup? Post-landing debrief? Who knows, they're silent on the radio currently. I announce I'm taking runway 29 taxiing to the runup loop area for runway 11. Windsock still favors 11 as I pass it. I enter the loop and call clear of the runway. The other plane asks if I'll be a minute, I say I will. They takeoff runway 29 departing to the west. I can still see the windsock. But am I reading it right? I run the physics through my head a few different ways "tail points toward runway to use" "the small end will get pushed around by the wind" "AWOS says winds 170" etc. Winds are light so it's not a big deal, but I'm absolutely questioning myself at this point. At one other airport, I completely got the runways backward, called the correct one, landed the opposite one though and absolutely facepalmed when I realized it. Fortunately it was as quiet as today's airport and no one was around to even care.

I take off and do a downwind departure, also to the west. I climb up to my altitude and get on with flight following. This is when things change for the better. I am on top of it with Center, Approach, and Tower. I'm talking to the same folks as the big boys carying 300 passengers and I sound cool too. Then I absolutely butter my landing back home. That all definitely helped a lot. Until I tie down. Now the doubt sets in again. I push the plane back, tie it down, replace the chock, replace the cowl plug, get all of my stuff out, write down the times, go inside, put away the POH and key, and leave. But ever since then, and after my previous flights, I'm always wondering, did I break something? Will the school call me two days from now and tell me that something on the plane is broken and it's my fault? Or is something missing? Did I actually put the cowl plug back in? After my previous flight in this plane (it's a retract), on final, I remember looking at the three green lights, but I don't remember vocalizing "three green" like I'm supposed to do on every leg after I put the gear down. I did that each time on this flight though...or did I? Obviously I didn't do a wheels-up landing either time, but not explicitly calling something so critical still haunts me a little.

Is any of this normal? Will these doubts go away and my confidence go up? I jokingly say to my friends "who's the idiot that had the stupid idea to let me fly a plane!?" but sometimes I feel like it's not entirely a joke. Yes, I'm one of those people who's very hard on themselves, and I have at times taken it to unhealthy levels. My attitude toward aviation is that it's not a place for mistakes. The results can be far more catastrophic than mistakes in literally any other part of my life (I'm not a professional nuclear warhead juggler), so I'm going to be holding myself to a high standard, and trying to learn from times I fall short. But does any of this sound normal, or should I really try to re-evaluate how I approach some of this? If you made it this far, thank you for sticking around, I'm very intersted in any honest feedback.
Click to expand...


The airspeed and altitude issue is because you are not maintaining pitch and probably not properly trimming. Establish and maintain an interval between the nose or the glare shield from the horizon and quit chasing the altimeter and airspeed indicator.
You also aren’t flying enough and the skills you had are perishing.
 
Hi Matt and everyone.
It's a PHASE, most / all new pilots go through that.
The only way to overcome it is to keep Flying and keep learning.
Assuming the one Theory of evolution is correct and we evolved from birds, it must have been a loooong time ago since most humans are uncomfortable in the air.
There may / will come a phase where you may enjoy more being in the air than driving a car, walking on the streets.., a sense of calm heighten awareness, lower pulse rate, real enjoyment, of being in the air is very possible with enough practice and perseverance.
Only one antidote. Keep flying, and keep learning, the more you know the more comfortable you will be, fly with anyone you can, every time you can.
 
The more you fly the less anxiety and self evaluation you should experience.
 
Pretty normal.

At the moment, you're comparing yourself to an imagined standard of perfection. Fly with some other folks and you'll become more realistic. Go up with me once or twice and you'll begin to consider yourself an ace.
 
Four flights since your checkride makes you a glorified student pilot. And not flying for seven weeks makes you a rusty one. Your confidence and proficiency will improve with experience.
 
Just echoing what other people said here. The fact that you are doing post-flight analyses and striving to continuously improves are good signs. And yeah - it's a perishable sill - I went a couple of months without so much as flying the pattern. The first time I went back up, I felt like I needed to pay extra attention to everything. Checklists became do-lists. Preflight took twice as long. Was hyper-focused on everything during each phase of flight. And all went great.

Anyway - try to fly more if possible. And keep doing those post-flight analyses and continuously pushing yourself to get better. You'll never be perfect in the airplane. But striving for it will make you a better pilot.
 
First, congrats on going up and getting done what you did. It sounded pretty complete, all in all.

Second, I'd say cut yourself some slack. Just like real driving is not like you were taught in driver's-ed, real flying is not going to be like you were taught in flight training.
So you were a few knots fast. Big deal, just slow it down.
You were a few feet high. Again, big deal, just descend a bit sooner or longer.
There is nobody on the ground w/ tracking radar who is grading you on this.
Most of the people on the ground are saying a variation of "That guy must be rich to be able to afford to fly!" or "Man, sure wish I were up there with him."

Nothing you wrote sounded unsafe or questionable, just a case of a lightly rusty pilot getting back into the saddle. Any pilot who has taken time off from flying has been there. But the rust brushes off and you will again be able to maintain the standards you want.
 
Just want to second, third, thirteenth what everyone else said: it’s normal, and the more you fly the more comfortable you will be.
Also, adding this: As I age (nearing 4000 hours and age 63) I find myself questioning myself more, “Did I put the oil cap back on?” That sort of thing. To combat that I enforce a “sterile cockpit” mindset when pre-flighting— I had been doing things by rote for so long that I couldn’t recall doing things like buttoning the cowl, etc. so now I force myself to a quiet mind and say out loud “caps on, “cowls tight” etc. Helps. After you have taxied out and shut down the engine a few times to check the oil cap, you find ways to make sure.
 
Fly more. You will feel better.
When you get to 400 hours you will be so confident you won't even realize you are about to crash.
Sorry. Stuck on the ground again today.
 
Yeah... what they all said. The more you fly, the more comfortable you'll get with it and (usually) the more realistic about your own abilities and competence. Keep flying.

but_did_you_die.jpg
 
I haven't been flying as much as I want to since November (because life) I went up for a quick rip Sunday afternoon. 1st approach I was high and fast 2nd approach I was high and fast. Lucky for me the 206 is very docile pull the power add in flaps 40 and glide right down. However the AAR in my head was a little more intense I am hard on myself in every aspect of life, but especially flying. I strive for perfection in all phases (In 500 hours I haven't had a perfect flight yet) Ironically enough the more I fly the easier it is to fly. Like 99.99% of life there is no substitute for experience. Keep flying you're fine. :cool:
 
You simply need to get more experience. You basically have a license to learn as a freshly certificated pilot. If you are concerned about your flying technique, fly with an instructor to shed the rust. Otherwise, plan some cross-countries to new destinations--any excuse will do (ice cream, hamburger, breakfast special, sightseeing)--and gain some confidence in flight planning, in-flight weather management, and navigation. And enjoy seeing new places. In my first 400 hours, I would set aside a nice weekend day, throw a virtual dart on the sectional map about an hour or two away, and fly there. Use flight following if practical to get used to working with ATC. Bonus points if the new destination had a diner or other diversion like a museum or beach. I rarely flew to the same location twice (unless there was a good diner). You will gain confidence in a hurry doing this. I started out with 1-hour trips out, and eventually built up to 2-3 hour flights out. It's amazing how far you can get in a day trip.

The first 100-200 hours is when you are going to develop good piloting habits and try to avoid making dumb and potentially dangerous mistakes more than once.
 
Hi Matt.
I took the time to read some more from your message and a couple more things you may want to think about, use.
I think that having some additional information available, on the ground before you take off may help.
There are many apps, some are free like Avare for the Android, that you can use, in flight or on the ground.
You can track your flight / practice by using a Flight simulator (try Xplane11, XP12 is still somewhat useless, or MSFS)interface with Avare and practice your flight before you leave the ground.
Know your numbers, this becomes more important as you get into IFR but it also helps as VFR. You can get them for any plane you fly from your CFI, and or find them by yourself in the Practice area, Climb, Cruise, Descent for different configurations and speeds. Most likely for a small GA like a 172 you need the 90 and 65 KIAS different flaps configurations.
The most important thing to remember, and understand, and most experienced pilots do not understand it, they learned to do it without really understanding it is: Power+Pitch=Performance. It's very important that you analyze, understand and think about it.
By using that approach your landings will become more of an energy management than just a memorized steps process.
At your stage doing things the same every time is important but as you get on Final think energy management, and make fine adjustments, this is where the Numbers become important as a starting point.
 
Yeah I mean flying takes a LOT of experience to get good at it and we can always get better. When you take a break you’re going to feel that way too. Try to fly once a week or at least twice a month.
 
You'll realize in a year or two or a few hundred more flight hours that fretting about everything is counter-productive.
 
StraightnLevel said:
OT: What makes Xplane12 useless?
Click to expand...
In my experience, it is the growing pains of getting all the add-ons from xp11 to transfer over / be available for xp12.
There was a time that trying to shoot some approaches at smaller, more obscure airports would inevitably result in flying the missed approach since the approach would be offset in one direction or another.

I dont know anyone who doubts that once it's had time to mature and establish itself that xp12 will be just as robust as xp11, just that it is not there yet.
 
I think I am nearly exiting from the anxiety stage. 250+ hrs.
Serious instrument training will further make you aware of your shortcomings.
You can do some airwork on your own to improve some of these things. Work on classic IFR training patterns.
Working on weaknesses is how I improve.
I'd suggest that much of the different phases of flight are at "known power settings" and all you mention is finessing power settings. Finesse would be setting for known settings, trimming the plane.
I got my PPL being lousy at hand flying and trimming!

You are not flying enough.
 
1709122514452.png
This handy Foreflight feature helped me a lot, not only to pick the right runway, but to plan pattern entry.

I'm in the same 'consciously incompetent' pilot phase, though I did fly myself to Sun N Fun last year.

I find myself ditching perfect flying days because flying by myself just to fly seems like a carryover from instruction.

Find a few folks that don't fly anymore for whatever reason and fly with them. I'm a lot more motivated to pick up my buddy and enjoy the flight rather than doing the student pilot thing of picking some random airports and practicing xc's.
 
After I got my private-pilot certificate, one of my musician colleagues who is also a pilot said that it's "a license to learn." I didn't like this at the time, but I later realized that she was 100% correct!
 
I’ll just add, that if you’re flying a retractable gear plane at under 100 hrs tt, you’re already flying a more complex, likely faster, plane than most at that experience level.
With 7 weeks off, it’s even more the case that you’re in a situation where approach & landings are going to be harder to stick than in a 152 or the like.

Fly fun places, plan day trips for a cool hike, air museum or meal. Keep the interval your flights shorter if possible, you’re still in the very new pp phase.

Enjoy!
 
Sorry for "abandoning" this thread, last week was pretty rough (for non-aviation reasons). I've read each reply and I truly thank all of you for the encouragement and advice! Flying more often is definitely the intent, budget is only going to allow once every 3-4 weeks currently, but I'll fly when I can, and definitely the same plane. The Cessnas at my rental place are always booked now. Again, thank you everyone!
 
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